AP reports on Daschle's DC "Homestead Deduction"

[Note: Important update appended.]

The AP has a report headlined "Daschle takes advantage of chance to vote absentee." Excerpt:

Dick Wadhams, Thune's campaign manager, said Thune had not yet decided whether to vote on Election Day or by absentee.

But Wadhams said Thune took issue with Daschle voting in Aberdeen after receiving a special tax break that required him to declare Washington, D.C., as his main residence.

"It is terribly ironic that Sen. Daschle would vote by absentee in South Dakota when he has declared his 'principal place of residence' as Washington, D.C.," Thune said Wednesday in a prepared statement.

Daschle said Thune's charge was inaccurate because all taxpayers in Washington, D.C., get the same treatment on their property taxes.

"My home is 1615 South First Street, Aberdeen, South Dakota, and I'm very proud of it," Daschle said.

It's amazing how Daschle's story keeps changing on this matter. First, the Daschle camp said the reason he received the DC "Homestead Deduction" is because his wife Linda qualified for it. When it became known that Tom Daschle himself had signed the application for the Homestead Deduction, not Linda, the Daschle camp changed their story and said "the house" qualified for the tax break, rather than any person. Today, Daschle says "all Washington, DC taxpayers" get the same treatment on their property taxes. No, only Washington, DC taxpayers who make the conscious action of applying for the Homestead Deduction by stating under penalty of perjury that DC is their "principal place of residence" get the same treatment on their property taxes. Moreover, in the Roll Call report on this matter last year, headlined "Daschle Hit On Tax Break; Wife Claims ‘Homestead’ Exemption", a DC government official was quoted as saying “Ninety-eight percent of the time it would be impossible for [a Member of Congress] to qualify" for the Homestead Deduction. The story goes on to say that Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina no longer qualified for the deduction when the Homestead Deduction statute was changed to require DC to be the applicant's domicile.

What's really curious about this whole matter is the fact that Senator Daschle's cronies in the DC government actually changed his Homestead Deduction status from "currently receiving the Homestead Deduction" to "not receiving the Homestead Deduction" when a FOIA request was made for a copy of Senator Daschle's application for the Homestead Deduction. You'd think this kind of activity is exactly the kind of activity a newspaper like the Argus Leader, with an editor who constantly prattles on about being a "watchdog" of the government, would be interested in pursuing. But if you thought that, you'd be wrong.

UPDATE: Note too, that Daschle says it's "inaccurate" that he has declared DC to be his principal place of residence. Except that it is accurate. As John Thune would say, don't listen to what Daschle says, just look at the record. Daschle has signed a document stating DC is his principal place of residence, and that document is readily available for scrutiny. All you have to do to get it is make a FOIA request to the DC government.